Drabble: A Broken Wing
by gilbertpenis
Summary: Rebekah and Klaus are 7 and 13, respectively, and they are hiding in a cave during a storm. To try and comfort his sister, Klaus begins to tell her a story.


The crash of thunder and lightning echoed across the village, the vicious booms radiating. It was a horrific situation for a 7 year old girl. Rebekah's tiny hands gripped the slightly larger hand of Niklaus, her older brother. He looked at his sister, her eyes wide and frightened. She reminded him of a deer. Those wide eyes, her thin, trembling limbs. He needed to protect her. He knew there was no real danger with the storm, but to her, it was life or death. With every lightning storm, they would come here. It was a secret passage of caves underneath the village. Rebekah had a terrible fear of lightning. She always had. The way the lightning would flash so unpredictably, always seeming to get closer and closer to her with each of those terrifying flashes. So, Niklaus would bring her here. He assured her that down in the caves, no lightning could hurt them. In fact, nothing could hurt them because he was there and he would protect her. He would always protect her.

"Nik," the younger human whispered, "I'm scared… When is it going to stop?"

"It'll be over soon, Bekah," Niklaus promised, squeezing her hand lightly.

"But it's louder than normal… What if someone gets hurt? 'Lijah and Kol and Henrik are up there, and Finn and mother and father."

"They're safe. Just like you are down here," Niklaus spoke softly and reassuringly.

"But how can you be sure they're safe?"

"Trust me, little sister… They're fine," he smiled weakly. He knew that once the storm passed and they went back home, Kol would taunt them about being cowards, Rebekah would try to hold back the tears and Niklaus would have to find a way to make Kol shut up and go somewhere else. He didn't care if people thought he was a coward. Rebekah was his priority. She had been since she was born. He remembered the day she was born. She was pale and small and her eyes seemed far too big for her face. She didn't do much, but Niklaus knew that she wouldn't. He'd faced the exact same disappointment when Kol had been born. So, he was used to it. He'd remembered taking her hand for the first time. Well, she took his finger, her tiny digits wrapping around it, clasping it tightly as her big, sapphire obs found his.

"What do we do if the lightning gets in?" Rebekah asked, interrupting Niklaus' thoughts.

"It won't, and if it ever were to, I would keep you safe, Bekah," promised the boy. "I'll always keep you safe."

"Always and forever," the girl nodded, a small smile forming on her lips. It was then that a particularly loud boom occurred and the younger of the two pulled her brother closer, burying her tiny face in his shirt, her eyelids tightly shut. The slight tremours had started again, making her body shake once again. Niklaus sighed and gently rested his chin atop of his sister's head.

"Do you want me to tell you a story?" Niklaus asked, his hands gently stroking his sibling's hair in an attempt to comfort her. She didn't speak to answer, but he felt her nod. He nodded once.

"Very well… There once lived a little girl. She was very beautiful and intelligent, near fearless, but she had one great fear. This fear could take her over… Make her cower and tremble. No one seemed to understand what could possibly frighten her so much. She was taunted for it, and no matter what people said, she would hold back the tears, for she knew that someone seeing her cry would be a greater humiliati-"

"Nik?" Rebekah asked, interrupting the story.

"Yes?"

"Could you not be more original with the story?" Niklaus couldn't help but chuckle as his sister spoke. He shook his head once and looked at her.

"Perhaps you could help me to make it more original," he knew this would be a good way of distracting her and finally stopping the trembles. The 7 year old nodded.

"One day, the little girl walked outside… She was happy. Nothing bad was going on. Her family were happy and so was she. But then… She… She found a little bird. It had a bad wing," Rebekah smiled weakly.

"And the little girl, being as kind and caring as she was beautiful, took the bird home and began to nurse it."

"But, the bird wasn't getting better. She tried everything she could. Her mother was a witch and she even asked her, but the bird stayed the same. Broken, unable to fly with the rest of the birds," the female looked up at her brother.

"The little girl's kind, caring and… _stubborn_ nature, permitted her from giving up on the bird. She continued to try to mend it's wing, trying everything she could think of, but nothing worked. One day," Niklaus spoke, his tone changing slightly, "a great storm hit. The little girl didn't want the bird to get hurt, so she escaped to a cave with it, deep underground where neither of them could get hurt. The storm, however, was the little girl's one great fear. She tried to protect the bird, but she could not help but be terrified herself. The little girl felt-"

"Weak… And-and idiotic, and helpless. She hated that feeling," Rebekah whispered, a few small tears forming in her eyes, but she refused to allow them to fall.

"The little bird asked her if she was okay and she told him she was fine… She didn't want to make him feel worse than he already did for having that broken wing. So, they stayed together for the night, promising each other it would be okay and in the morning they'd be fine. They woke the next morning and were relieved to find the storm was gone. But, when they found the entrance of the cave, they realised it was blocked." As Niklaus said this, Rebekah gasped slightly.

"A-and they couldn't get out because… the… A tree! The storm had made a tree fall over and it blocked them. And the little girl and the bird tried to push the tree away so they could get out, but they couldn't. They were stuck," the young girl stated.

"The bird knew he had to help. The little girl had been so kind to him, too kind for her to let her be stuck there forever. He told her he'd get them out. He told her he would keep her safe. But he had a broken wing. And how could he keep her safe when he was broken?"

"The little girl knew they wouldn't be safe… They couldn't be safe. But they would have each other, and she knew that was good enough for her," Rebekah whispered, her grip on her brothers hand tightening as she did.

"But the bird wanted her to have more. He wanted her to have more than she deserved. He wanted her to be happy and have everything she could ever want. He knew she couldn't have that if they were trapped in the cave together, so he got his broken wing, and he began to fly. He ignored the pain. He ignored how much it hurt him, and he pushed the tree away, letting the little girl out," the male whispered.

"And from that day on, the bird and the little girl promised to protect each other… Always and forever," Rebekah smiled. She looked into her brother's eyes for a few moments, before wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his neck. He held her close, his face finding a place in her hair as his arms wrapped around her torso.

He knew it would be a long night. And he knew they would get through it.


End file.
